On-premises restaurant communication system for collecting feedback

Abstract

An on-premises restaurant communication system for collecting feedback from the customers at the end of their meal. At the end of a meal at the restaurant, the bill to pay (usually called “the check”) is brought inside a small dish, presenting a small screen and 3 buttons. The customer reads the simple question about his experience that is displayed on the screen and answers by pushing one of the three keys on the apparatus. In response to getting the answer, the client communication device transmits it to the on-premises central transmitter wirelessly. Regularly, the on-premises central transmitter synchronizes with a remote global database over the internet to collect and store all settings and data. This information is then processed so as to generate statistics and make them available to the management of the restaurant over time.

1 . An on-premises restaurant communication system for collecting client feedback, said system comprising:
 data displaying means on a client device given to the restaurant patron at the time they receive the check for displaying them a question asked about their experience.   data input means on the client device for the patron to input their answer to the question asked.   a communication transmitter receiver in the client device that receives questions and settings, and then sends the feedback collected back to the central transmitter.   a communication transmitter receiver in the central transmitter that transmits questions and settings to the client devices, and receives answers to the questions.   data memory in the central transmitter that stores the settings received from the remote database, and the feedback pending synchronization to that database.   an internet transmitter receiver in the central transmitter that retrieves periodically questions and settings from the remote database and sends back the feedback collected.   a user interface under the form of a web interface accessible from a standard web browser over the internet that enables the restaurant management to both program their devices and get information about the feedback collected.   
     
     
         2 . The on-premises restaurant communication system for collecting client feedback of  claim 1  wherein the client device is handed to the patron at the end of their meal as they receive the bill to pay. 
     
     
         3 . The on-premises restaurant communication system for collecting client feedback of  claim 1  wherein the client device used to collect the patron's feedback has a small multi-line back-lighted LCD screen to display the question asked to the customer and three buttons used to input answer to the question displayed. 
     
     
         4 . The on-premises restaurant communication system for collecting client feedback of  claim 1  wherein the client device used to collect the patron's feedback includes a radio frequency receiver and transmitter that sends and receives data from and to the central transmitter device. 
     
     
         5 . The on-premises restaurant communication system for collecting client feedback of  claim 1  wherein the central transmitter device includes a radio frequency receiver and transmitter that sends and receives data from and to client devices, and an internet connection mean to send and receive data from and to a remote database over the internet. 
     
     
         6 . The client device of  claim 3  wherein the three buttons used to provide input represent respectively a negative experience, a neutral experience, and a positive experience. 
     
     
         7 . A method of collecting feedback from customers within a restaurant having a plurality of tables, said method comprising the steps of:
 programming what questions to ask the customers through a web-based GUI (graphic user interface)   having the central transmitter synchronize with the remote database and the client devices within the restaurant.   bringing the bill to the customers in one of the dish-shaped client device   having the customers read the question on the client device and press a button to answer it.   having the client device then transmit the answer wirelessly to the central transmitter which will, in turn, transmit all the feedback received since its last transmission to the remote database.   getting data and statistics on the web-based GUI based on all the feedback aggregated overtime.